


Now you see me, now you don't

by tucuxi



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-18
Updated: 2011-02-18
Packaged: 2017-10-16 20:57:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tucuxi/pseuds/tucuxi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iruka shook his head, and wondered if hoping a member of ROOT was breaking into your apartment to mess with your head was a sign of mental illness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now you see me, now you don't

When it was confined to the classroom, Iruka could ignore - or at least explain away - the disappearance and reappearance of random objects. It wasn't unlike his students to think that if they took all the chalk, he couldn't teach (he always had extra locked in his desk - if they could get to it, then they'd get the three minute break it took for him to duck to the teacher's office and get more). Chalk and erasers - even pencils and pens and stacks of test books or boxes of practice weapons - those were potentially just student pranks.

When he woke up one morning and discovered his toothbrush was missing, Iruka started to get annoyed. Whoever it was was skilled, he had to grant them that: Iruka's apartment had sensitive traps by each entrance, to keep students from trying to steal back their papers, or fiddle with his grade-book. (And if they could get past the traps, find the actual grade book, and decipher Iruka's short-hand well enough to falsify it, he usually left it alone: that took effort, after all.)

Iruka finally figure out who it was after he noticed that his things really only went missing when Naruto was in Konoha. And though Naruto might be good at getting Iruka's attention, he couldn't lie to his former teacher worth a damn: Iruka believed him when he said he wasn't breaking into Iruka's apartment to mess with him. (And, really, Iruka thought: even if he'd tried, Naruto would most likely have blundered into one of Iruka's traps.) That left anyone who was in Konoha on the same schedule as Naruto - which meant Sakura, Sai, or Hatake Kakashi. Sakura would have no reason to break in - she was probably skilled enough to get past most of Iruka's safe-guards, but he couldn't imagine her wanting to in the first place.

Iruka shook his head, and wondered if hoping a member of ROOT was breaking into your apartment to mess with your head was a sign of mental illness.

As it turned out, the person taking Iruka's things wasn't Sai.

* * *

Iruka stormed into the hospital room, and stopped. He stared down at Kakashi, who was at least awake, though he really didn't look well.

"What are you, five?" Iruka exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "Taking my _toothbrush_? Why didn't you, I don't know, pull on my hair while you were at it? That at least would have let me know who the hell was stalking me!"

Kakashi just grinned, and Iruka felt a tug on his ponytail. He stared at Kakashi, and a horrible suspicion crept up on him.

"Kakashi," he said, "you did not just -" but when Iruka turned around, there was a shadow clone standing behind him, reaching out to pull his hair again.

Iruka decked it, and it vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Hey," Kakashi called, sitting up straighter in his hospital bed and raising a hand to his jaw, "that was-"

"If you're going to tell me it was uncalled for," Iruka said, "I'm calling Shizune in and telling her how you're wasting chakra when you're supposed to be recovering!"

Well, Iruka thought, watching Kakashi sputter, at least his things would stop going missing now.

They didn't.


End file.
